Options

Introduction to Helium Music Manager Options

The Options dialog enables you to change options and settings that affect the way Helium Music Manager and its tools works. This enables you to control many aspects of the Helium Music Manager environment.

Click on Tools | Options... from the main menu to launch the Options dialog.

Click on one of the links below to read more about each section in the Options window:  

General Settings

  • Show help on start-up
    This options     will automatically show the help upon each start of Helium Music Manager.

  • The Restore Warnings button will restore all "Do not show again" warning messages to their default state.

  • Ignore read-only attributes will tell Helium Music Manager to try and save tags to files even though a file is marked as read-only. A file can be read-only for several reasons:

    • The file can be on read-only media (CD, DVD or a protected network drive). These files can never be written to.

    • The file may have been copied from read-only media to your hard disc. This file should be able to be written to, when this setting is enabled.

    • You may have manually set it to read-only to disable programs from editing the information in the file.

  • Use Hotkeys will ley you use the following hotkeys to control Helium Music Manager, even when it's not the active application:

    • Shift+Win+5 - Rate the file that's currently being played to 5 stars

    • Shift+Win+4 - Rate the file that's currently being played to 4 stars

    • Shift+Win+3 - Rate the file that's currently being played to 3 stars

    • Shift+Win+2 - Rate the file that's currently being played to 2 stars

    • Shift+Win+1 - Rate the file that's currently being played to 1 star

    • Shift+Win+0 - Remove rating for the file that's currently being played

    • Shift+Win+Alt+5 - Rate the file that's currently being played to 4.5 stars

    • Shift+Win+Alt+4 - Rate the file that's currently being played to 3.5 stars

    • Shift+Win+Alt+3 - Rate the file that's currently being played to 2.5 stars

    • Shift+Win+Alt+2 - Rate the file that's currently being played to 1.5 stars

    • Shift+Win+Alt+1 - Rate the file that's currently being played to 0.5 star

    • Media keys such as Previous Track, Next Track, Play/Pause, Stop and volume up/down keys

  • Character Encoding
    The Character Encoding string is for setting the character encoding to be used in the Music Information Browser, Now Playing and Summary. Users with problem displaying certain characters in any or all of these views may want to edit this setting. Most users will want to keep this to the default value which is ISO-8859-1.
    The following ISO encodings are defined:

    • 8859-1 Latin I

    • 8859-2 Central Europe

    • 8859-3 Soth European

    • 8859-4 Scandinavian/Baltic

    • 8859-5 Cyrillic

    • 8859-6 Arabic

    • 8859-7 Greek

    • 8859-8 Hebrew

    • 8859-9 Latin 5

  • Active Language
    T    ells which language Helium Music Manager is currently using.

    Click on the Change button to change to a different language. Select the desired language and click OK to apply. A restart of the program is necessary for a new language to be loaded.

  • When Visible/Minimized show Helium Music Manager in:

    • Taskbar Only
      This option is the standard "Windows Mode" presentation. An item for Helium Music Manager is added to the task bar, which can be used to minimize, restore and close the Helium Music Manager window.

    • System Tray Only
      This option places an icon in the system tray which can be used to restore the window or to close the application.

    • Taskbar and system tray
      This option will show Helium Music Manager in both the above locations.

Tags

The settings on this page only apply to MP3 files.

  • Show progress dialog when applying tags
    If this option is enabled you will see a dialog each time that tags are applied to your files. This dialog can be hidden by clicking the Hide button. If this option is disabled no dialog will be shown and tags will be silently applied in the background.

  • Apply tags in background
    If this option is enabled (which it is by default), tags will be applied silently in the background. If the option is not enabled tags will be written to files while showing a dialog that cannot be hidden.

  • Use ID3v1, ID3v2 and Lyrics3v2 tags
    This is the default setting which will write these tags to MP3 files. This setting should be used unless you have special wishes to use APEv2 tags.

  • Use ID3v1 and APEv2 tags
    This option will write APEv2 tags instead of ID3v2 tags on MP3 files. Also note that Lyrics3 v2 tags are not allowed and will not be used when using APEv2 tags.

  • Save as ID3v2.3
    This option tells Helium Music Manager not to write any ID3v2.4 specific fields.

    Click here to read about the changes from ID3 v2.3 to ID3 v2.4

  • Save in ID3 v2.4 compatible mode
    This option tells Helium Music Manager to write backwards compatible tags so they can be read in players not supporting the ID3 v2.4 specifications (the latest standard). This may also be an important option for many people who use portable music players (such as Creative's Zen or Apple's iPod), since some players do not yet support ID3 v2.4. Selecting this box will tell Helium Music Manager to write all ID3v2.4 tags but set the version to ID3v2.3 so players not supporting ID3v2.4 will be able to read all information (except the version 2.4 specific fields).

    Click here to read about the changes from ID3 v2.3 to ID3 v2.4

  • Save as ID3 v2.4
    This option is default and will save tags in the ID3 v2.4 format.

  • The Padding value controls how much extra space Helium Music Manager will write at the end of the ID3 v2.x tag. By adding a little padding (empty space) Helium Music Manager can add new information to the tags without slowing down the tagging process. If no padding is used Helium Music Manager will need to rewrite the entire file each time a tag is changed, which results in slower file writings. The padding has a default value of 2048 which should only be modified if necessary.

  • Save iTunes specific tags
    This option will save additional iTunes compatible tags. This includes the Compilation tag specifically used by iTunes.

  • Save play counter to tags
    This option will update the play counter (PCNT ID3v2 tag frame) in your files when they are being played. This is good to use if you are using other programs that supports this information.

  • Save BPM in PCDJ compatible mode
    This option will save the BMP field in a format so that the PCDJ software can read it properly.

  • Save rating to MusicMatch Jukebox
    This option will save all rating values set by you in both the tag format that Helium Music Manager uses as well as in MusicMatch Jukebox's tag format.

    Note:     MusicMatch Jukebox does not support half ratings. A half rating in Helium Music Manager will be rounded up to the nearest star in MusicMatch Jukebox.

Custom Fields

This page will allow you to set names for the five custom tag fields you can use in Helium Music Manager.

These custom fields will be used on both tags and in the Database and you can use them for any content you like.

Sort Order Settings

This page will allow you to control how Helium Music Manager should use sort order data.

  • Use Sort Order:
    If selected, Helium Music Manager will use Artist, Album and Title Sort Order fields (if present) in place of the Artist, Album and Title fields. This is done when Helium Music Manager displays the track list in all browsers or the Music Library's Artist, Album and Title items.

  • Auto Set Sort Order:
    If selected, The Tag editors will overwrite the Artist, Album and Title Sort Order fields where the associated Artist, Album and Title fields start with any of the comma separated words in the Words used for Auto Sort Order processing - e.g. if 'The' is one of the words in this list and the Artist field is  'The Beatles' this will generate an Artist Sort Order field of 'Beatles, The'. In any other case the sort field will be cleared if the associated 'unsorted' field has the same value.  Otherwise the sort field will remain unaltered.

Note:
  • Auto Set Sort Order will only be in effect when tags are being written.

  Paths & External Applications

User Data Folder

The User Data Folder can be used to set a certain folder where you easily can copy files to. The User Folder is available in the Send To menu from both the main menu and in the context menus that you reach by right clicking on files.

External Applications

You can add shortcuts to any external applications that you would like to start from Helium Music Manager. External applications can be started with the selected music files as parameter, so you can start virtually any application that will take music files as parameters. External applications are available from the File | External Applications menu. You can also configure external applications to be run when you double click on items in the track list.

How to add an external application:

  1. Click the Add button.

  2. Type a description for the application in the Description edit box.

  3. Click the Browse button to browse for the application to be used as the Target.

  4. Click Open once you have selected the application.

  5. Add any optional parameters in the Parameters edit box.

    There are some parameter variables that can be used to launch an External Application with. These are described below:

    • %directory%
      This variable will be replaced with the entire path of the first selected file.

      Example:
      D:\My Music\Madonna\Immaculate Collection\

    • %filename%
      This variable will be replaced with the filename of the first selected file.

      Example:
      02 - Papa Don't preach.mp3

    • %files%
      This variable will be replaced with a list of all selected files, including the paths. Each file is surrounded by quotes (") and separated by a space character.

      Example:
      "D:\My Music\Madonna\Immaculate Collection\02 - Papa Don't preach.mp3" "D:\My Music\Madonna\Immaculate Collection\03 - Vogue.mp3"

    • %wafiles%
      This variable will make the application selected in the Target box to be run once for each selected file and replace the %wafiles% variable string of each filename, including paths. This can be good to use for applications that does not take multiple files as parameters (which means that the %files% variable cannot be used).

      Example (if two files are selected and Winamp is the Target):
      winamp.exe "D:\My Music\Madonna\Immaculate Collection\02 - Papa Don't preach.mp3"
      winamp.exe "D:\My Music\Madonna\Immaculate Collection\03 - Vogue.mp3"

    • %wait%
      This parameter will make Helium Music Manager wait until the application selected in the Target box terminates.

    • %refresh%
      This parameter will make Helium Music Manager update the database data (synchronize) for the selected files after the application selected in the       Target box terminates. This parameter automatically includes the %wait% parameter.

    Note:
    When using the     %directory%, %filename% or %wafiles% parameters, you may want to quote the parameters to make them work in your external application. Just type "%wafiles%" (including the quotes), for example in the Parameter box.
     

  6. Click OK.

Optionally click the Templates button to add one of the predefined templates for external applications.

Note:
  • Parameters are optional and are not needed to normally start applications.
How to edit an external application:
  1. Select the application to edit from the list.
  2. Click the Edit button.
  3. Follow steps 2 to 6 from How to add an external application above.
How to remove an external application.
  1. Select the application to be removed from the list.
  2. Click the Remove button.

Setting the default application
Select any external application from the list and click the Set As Default button to make the selected external application default. The default external application can be used as the default action when double clicking files in the track list.

Proxy & Last.fm

Proxy

  • The Proxy settings are used by the plug-ins in Helium Music Manager when you are behind a proxy server.

    Fill in the Address, Port, Username and Password fields, if necessary.

    Please contact your computer administrator to receive proxy settings if you are behind a proxy server.
Note:
  • By default these edit boxes should be empty and the Port should be set to 0 (zero).

Last.fm/Audioscrobbler

 
Select the Use Last.fm/Audioscrobbler option if you would like to use the Last.fm/Audioscrobbler service when you are playing music. To be able to use Last.fm/Audioscrobbler you will need to type your username in the Username edit box and your password in the Password box.

For more information about Last.fm/Audioscrobbler click this link.

Player

This page will let you configure which player to use in Helium Music Manager and how it should behave in different situations.

  • Internal Player (BASS Engine)
    This is the default option and will use the Internal Player to replay your music. There are several benefits of using this replaying engine. Click this link to see the available options for the Internal Player (BASS Engine).

  • Internal Player (Windows Media Player) is similar to Internal Player (BASS Engine) but will use the Windows Media Player engine to replay your music and will not give you the benefit of the many additional options available when using the BASS Engine. The Windows Media Player interface will not be shown. This mode is made available to accommodate compatibility issues with the BASS engine.

  • Winamp 2.x or Winamp 5.x will use Winamp for playback. Version 2.x or 5.x of Winamp is required. Winamp 3 is not supported.

    When Winamp is used for replaying, Helium Music Manager will hide the Active Playlist window and take advantage of Winamp's playlist instead. You will still have access to the Internal Player window, but the available commands will be executed against Winamp instead of the internal playlist (Active Playlist) in Helium Music Manager.

  • iTunes 4.2+ will use Apple's iTunes for playback. Version 4.2 or greater of iTunes is required.

    Note:
    If you intend to use iTunes for replaying then we recommend that you set iTunes preferences to NOT COPY files when they are played as if you do this Helium Music Manager is unable to fully manage the playing of iTunes music.

  • Scroll title in the Windows taskbar will scroll the full title of the currently replayed song in the taskbar button.

  • Center the active track in the Internal Player
    This option will make sure that the currently playing track will be visible in the Active Playlist by scrolling the list to show the currently played track (marked with an orange background color).

  • The spin-control to the right of the text Update playcounter after 50% of the track length or [x] seconds will allow you to control how many seconds a track must be replayed before the play counter should be increased. Please note that this time refers to the actual playing time, so skipping into a song will not affect the playing time.

  • Autostart CD Art Display will let you choose if you would like to start CD Art Display when Helium Music Manager starts. More information about CD Art Display can be found here: http://www.closetosoftware.com/?s=cdartdisplay

  • Auto apply covers downloaded with CD Art Display will automatically add covers found with CD Art Display to your albums in Helium Music Manager.

Internal Player (BASS)

 All of the options below can only be in effect when using the BASS Engine:

  • Device
    This is the sound device that Helium Music Manager uses for playing your music. This should be set to Default Device in most cases. If you are having problems playing your music you might want to try to change this option. This is also useful for systems with more than one sound card when you want to specify the output device manually.

  • Playback buffer
    The value set to playback buffer (in milliseconds), controls how big the player buffer will be. The default buffer length is 500 milliseconds. Increasing the length, decreases the chance of the sound possibly breaking-up on slower computers, but also increases the latency.

  • Enable Accurate VBR Replaying (slower reading)
    This option will let BASS calculate the proper bitrate for each file that are being played upon load. This setting will make the player perform slower during reading and you should only use it if you have problems with replaying VBR files.

  • Use Evil Lyrics (if available)
    If you have EvilLyrics installed, you can use it together with Helium Music Manager by enabling this setting. EvilLyrics is a program that searches the Internet for lyrics while you are playing your music. You can read more about EvilLyrics on their web site.

  • Send Now Playing information to MSN Messenger
    This option will make Helium Music Manager change your personal tag-line to show which song you are currently playing. This is a cool way of showing your contacts what music you are currently listening to.

  • Update MSN Messenger picture with the active album picture
    This option will update your personal picture to display the album picture of the album for the currently playing file.
    Please note that this feature requires MSN Live Messenger or later versions installed on your system.

  • Use crossfader
    The crossfader is used to smoothly fade songs together. Crossfading is used when a new song is played, either by manually clicking     Next on the Internal Player, or when a song reaches the end.

    The     Crossfade for [x] seconds tells how many seconds the two songs should be faded together.

    The     Start crossfade when [x] seconds of the current track remains tells Helium Music Manager to automatically start cross fading to the next song in the Active Playlist when there are [x] seconds left in the currently playing song.

    When     Crossfade on double-click is selected, Helium Music Manager will perform a crossfade when a new song is selected to be played from any of the views and the Active Playlist, if a song currently is played.

Using Replay Gain

Replay Gain is a feature built into the Internal Player. In short it will be able to normalize the output volume during replaying so that irritating volume changes can be avoided. To be able to take advantage of the Replay Gain features, the files will need to contain Replay Gain tags, created by external tools. Helium Music Manager supports Replay Gain tags for Ogg Vorbis files, FLAC files and MP3 files. The different Replay Gain options available are:

  • Don't use Replay Gain will ignore Replay Gain tags and not apply automatic volume leveling.

  • Use Track Gain will use the track gain values (if available) to apply automatic volume leveling.

  • Use Album Gain will use album gain values (if available) to apply automatic volume leveling.

For more information about Replay Gain and related tools click this link.

Add-ons

  • Use AMIP
    This option will allow you to use AMIP (Advanced mIRC Integration Plug-in) with Helium Music Manager.
    To be able to use this feature, you will need to place the Winamp version of the plug-in (gen_irc.dll) in the plugins folder. (<helium.exe>\plugins). Once enabled it will allow you to propagate what you are listening to in Helium Music Manager to mIRC and other supported IRC clients.

    More information about AMIP and downloding of the plug-in can be found here: http://amip.tools-for.net/wiki/start

  • Use CDG Plugin
    This option will allow you to use CDG files with Helium Music Manager.
    To be able to use this feature, you will need to place the Winamp version of the plug-in (gen_cdg.dll, gen_cdg.ini) in the plugins folder. (<helium.exe>\plugins). Once enabled, the plugin will display karaoke information for the current playing file, if available. (.CDG files should be named the same as the MP3 file and be placed in the same folder as the MP3 files).

    More information about the CDG plug-in and downloading can be found here: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/141804

  • Load SHOUTCast (if available)
    This option will try to load the SHOUTCast plugin at startup, allowing you to stream web radio to the Internet. Read more about how to enable SHOUTCast support in Helium Music Manager from the SHOUTCast help section.

    The title that will be sent to SHOUTCast can be formatted using the following codes:

    • %artist - will be replaced with the current artist

    • %title - will be replaced with the current title

    • %remix - will be replaced with the current remix

    • %subtitle - will be replaced with the current subtitle

    • %position - will be replaced with the current playlist position

    • %genre - will be replaced with the current genre

    • %year - will be replaced with the current year

    • %album - will be replaced with the current album title

      NOTE:
      All codes should be written in lowercase.

 

Party Mode

When Helium Music Manager is active in party mode, the most commands will be protected from usage. Party mode is designed to be used on parties (as the name implies), to keep a playlist running properly and avoid that anyone skips songs. A administrator that knows the party mode password can execute the locked functions as well as switching to normal mode.

  • Enable Party Mode will control if Party Mode is active or inactive.

  • Party Mode Password will allow you to set the master password, used to unlock commands and switching to normal mode.

Party Mode Restriction Level

You can control how hard the restrictions of the party mode should be b setting the party mode restriction level:

  • Hard Restrictions will allow the following commands

    • Volume Changing

    • Enqeue Last

    • Browsing through all views

    • Searching for tracks

  • Normal Restrictions will allow the same commands as hard restrictions plus:

    • Play next from the Active Playlist

    • Play/Pause

    • Allow a rating to be set

Playlists & Now Playing

The Playlist Export Format edit box will let you control the formatting of items that are exported in playlists from Helium Music Manager. Click the Codes button to see the available codes that can be used. Each code will be translated to it's respective value upon the exporting.

Now Playing, Quick Browser and Music Information Browser Replaying controls how files played from these views should be handled. You can control what Helium Music Manager should do if it does not already playing a song as well as what it should do it is already playing a song.

  • Enqueue and Play
    Files will be enqueued after the currently playing song and start to play the first of the enqueued files instantly. If no song is currently playing the files will be enqueued last in the Active Playlist.

  • Enqueue Next
    Files will be enqueued after the currently playing song. If no song is currently playing the files will be enqueued last in the Active Playlist.

  • Enqueue Last
    Files will be enqueued last in the Active Playlist.

Clear playlist before adding songs will always clear the Active Playlist before adding new tracks to be played. Note that this setting is only used when using Enqueue and Play from within Helium Music Manager.

Control the number of Suggested Tracks and Favourite Tracks to be shown in the Now Playing pane using the Number of suggested tracks and Number of favourite tracks settings.

Auto Correction

Auto Correction is used by the Tag Editors in Helium Music Manager to automatically correct wrongly spelt words and to correctly capitalize texts.
 
Select the Enable Auto Correction in the tag editors to turn on Auto Corrections in all tag editors.

Word/Text Replacer

This list includes two texts; an Original and a Replacement and a setting to define whether to treat this text replacement as a Word.

  1. Click the Add button to add a new text replacement.

  2. Type the original word in the Original word box. Case will be ignored when doing the comparison.

  3. Type the word that should replace the original word in the Replace with box.

  4. Optionally select the Treat as Word box to treat the text replacement as a Word. This option should be enabled in most cases. When this option is not enabled, the text in the Original word box will be replaced in all texts, disregarding of the text being in a middle of a word.

    Example:
    If you have the word dont in the Original word box and don't in the Replace with box, the word Mastodont would be replaced with Mastodon't if the Treat as Word option was disabled.

  5. Click OK.

Note:
  • You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or the Remove buttons.

Capitalizer

This page contains settings that control how text strings should be capitalized or case converted. These settings apply when using any Tag Editor.

  1. Sentence capitalization
    This option will convert the first character in each sentence to upper case and the rest of the characters to lower case.

  2. Word Capitalization
    This option will convert the first character in each word to upper case and the rest of the characters in each word to lower case.

  3. UPPERCASE conversion
    This option will convert all text to uppercase.

  4. Lowercase conversion
    This option will convert all texts to lowercase.

  5. No capitalization
    This option will leave all text as it is.

  6. Custom capitalization
    This option will capitalize the character following the ones listed below. Type the characters after one another in the list. The default custom capitalization list is: -) ./:(

  7. Custom capitalization list
    This list     is used to define words that should always have a custom capitalization. Just enter the words that you want to custom capitalize, separating each word onto a separate line. To remove a word, just delete the line containing the word.

Note:
  • An example:
    You have a title that looks like this:

    last night a dj saved my life (from a broken heart)

    By using custom capitalization a space (" ") and a parenthesis ("(") is included in the default list.The above title would then be converted to:

    Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (From A Broken Heart)

    The space (" ") and the parenthesis ("(") tells the capitalize function to always capitalize the first character following the characters in the list. Also note that the DJ text is converted to upper case since it's included in the default custom capitalization list.

Multiple Artist Commands

Multiple Artist Commands are used in the Tag Editors during extraction of multiple artists. Extraction can either occur by manually invoking the operation from the Multiple Artist Editor (by clicking Extract) or if you have the setting Auto-extract Multiple Artists active in any of the Tag Editors.

The topmost list contains entries used to identify commands that will split a text into multiple artists. The value in the Original column will be used to identify the command. This can optionally be replaced during the split to maintain consistency, with the value in the Replacement column.

  1. Click the Add button to add a new command.

  2. Type the original word in the Original box.

  3. Type the command that should replace the original command in the Replace box.

  4. Click OK.

Note:
  • You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or the Remove buttons.
The input field at the bottom defines a list of word combinations that should not be splitted automatically. Enter any combination of words, separate entries on new lines.

 

Filename To Tag

These settings define how the Filename To Tag tool works from within the Tag Editor.

  • Enable Filename to Tag in the Tag Editor will enable Filename To Tag parsing in the Tag Editor.

  • Overwrite existing information will make fields found by the Filename to Tag function overwrite existing information in the Tag Editor.

  • Use full path when parsing filenames may be used if you have information in your folder-structure that you want to make the Filename to Tag function extract information from.

  • Auto save user-defined templates will automatically save templates that you manually type, when not using Automatic filename parsing

  • Verbose mode will invoke a dialog that lets you choose from multiple matching templates. The dialog will only be shown if there is more than one matching template found, and only when using Automatic filename parsing.

  • Automatic filename parsing will try to automatically find the best matching template for the current filename.

  • Greedy mode is an alternative mode which may produce more accurate results for some filenames.

Note:
  • Information about the Stripped filename:

    In all the Filename To Tag processing, the actual filename is never altered. Only the internal Stripped Filename field is altered which enables the Filename To Tag tool to function more accurately.

There are four lists which can be altered to make the Filename to Tag function work more accurate. You can change which list that is currently edited by choosing it in the Change drop down list. These lists are explained below:

The Remove list

All the characters/words defined in this list will always be removed from the stripped filename before Filename To Tag parsing, if they exist in the filename.
  1. Click the Add button to add a new character/word to be removed.
  2. Type in the character/word.
  3. Click OK.
Note:
  • You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or Remove buttons.
The Remove End List
 
All the characters/words defined in this list will always be removed from the stripped filename before Filename To Tag parsing, if they exist at the end of the filename.
  1. Click the Add button to add a new character/word to be removed.
  2. Type in the character/word.
  3. Click OK.
Note:
  • You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or Remove buttons.
The Replace List
 
Characters/Words in the stripped filename, that are defined in the original column, will always be replaced by the characters/words in the replacement columns before Filename To Tag parsing, if they exist in the filename.
  1. Click the Add button to add a new character/word to be removed.
  2. Type the original character/word in the Original word box.
  3. Type the character/word that should replace the original word in the Replace with box.
  4. Click OK.
Note:
  • You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or Remove buttons.
The User defined templates
 
If Filename To Tag cannot find a matching template for a file, you can define your own template. When you save templates from the Filename To Tag tool (when working in manual mode), they will show up in this list.
  1. Click the Add button to add a new template.
  2. Type in your new template. You can use the Codes button to select the required template fields from the pull down menu. See the Filename To Tag tool for more information about defining templates.
  3. Click OK.
Note:
  • You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or Remove buttons.

Visual Settings

The Visual Settings page defines the options for visual controls in Helium Music Manager.

  • Display unavailable tracks in italic
    Will italicize the text on files in the track list when they are unavailable. A file can be unavailable for several reasons:

    • If a file has been moved to a different location after having added it to the database.

    • If a file is stored on a CD/DVD and the disc is not in the drive.

    • If a file is on a network drive that is currently off line.

  • Use small toolbar icons
    W    ill make Helium Music Manager use small toolbar icons on the main toolbar instead of the standard sized icons.

  • Theme
    Will control the main visual look of Helium Music Manager.

  • Background colors for:

    • Files with tags specifies the color to use for files with tags.

    • Files without tags specifies the color to use for files without tags.

  • Text Colors:

    • General track color is used for all available tracks in the track list.

    • Unavailable track color is used for all unavailable tracks in the track list.

  • Desktop Alerts will let you configure how Desktop Alerts should behave in Helium Music Manager:

    • Show general Desktop Alerts - If selected, Desktop Alerts will be shown when lengthy operations are completed.

    • Show player Desktop Alerts - If selected, Desktop Alerts will be shown when a track is being played.

    • Show Desktop Alerts only when Helium Music Manager is not the active Window - When this option is selected Helium Music Manager will only show Desktop Alerts when Helium Music Manager is not active.

    Note:
    Click the     Configure button to configure the duration and transparency of the desktop alerts.

Note:
  • To select a color, click on the colored button for the item you would like to change, and a color picker dialog will be shown. If you prefer, you can also enter an HTML color code (in hexadecimal form) directly into the edit box to the right of the colored button.

  Browser Views (General)

These settings apply to all the browsers in Helium Music Manager:

  • Automatically select all tracks if none are selected will make all tools/wizards automatically select all tracks in the track list when no files are selected. This removes the need to manually select all tracks before running a tool/wizard.

  • Show tree lines will show tree lines in all trees, e.g. the Music Library and the Playlist Browser.

  • Show grid in track list activates grid lines between rows in the Track List.

  • Pad track/cd with a leading zero will show track and cd numbers as 01 and 02 instead of 1 and 2 in the track list and in other places within Helium Music Manager.

  • Enable full drag makes the track list and the Active Playlist allow dragging of tracks by clicking in the whole area of a row instead of being forced to click directly on a text.

  • Use Windows XP logical sorting will use Windows XP's logical sorting which sorts like this:
    Music Album Name 1
    Music Album Name 2
    Music Album Name 3
    Music Album Name 4
    Music Album Name 5
    Music Album Name 6
    Music Album Name 7
    Music Album Name 8
    Music Album Name 9
    Music Album Name 10
    Music Album Name 20
    Music Album Name 30

    While the sorting of non-XP operating systems would look like this:
    Music Album Name 1
    Music Album Name 10
    Music Album Name 2
    Music Album Name 20
    Music Album Name 3
    Music Album Name 30
    Music Album Name 4
    Music Album Name 5
    Music Album Name 6
    Music Album Name 7
    Music Album Name 8
    Music Album Name 9

  • Clear temporary files on close will clear files used by Helium Music Manager when exiting the program. Temporary files are created by the Tag Editor when editing files and the Music Information Browser when browsing your music.

  • Auto-fit columns will automatically adjust the column width in the Track List so that they only will be as wide as necessary.

  • Show Sidebar toolbars will adjust if the view specific bottom toolbar in the Left Sidebar should be visible or not.

  • Use Simple Track Filter Interface will allow you to use the simple Track Filter interface.

  • Action to perform on double-click controls which action that Helium Music Manager should perform when double-clicking on an audio file in the Track List.

  • Action to perform on double-click when a file plays controls which action that Helium Music Manager should perform when double-clicking on an audio file in the Track List when a song is being played.

  • Add all tracks on double-click will add all tracks from the track list then the selected Action is executed.

Album Browser

These settings only apply to the Album Browser:

  • Show Album Filter will show the Album Filter while in the Album Browser.

  • Apply Album Browser Filter to track list
    This option will apply the filter specified in the Album Filter also to the track list when browsing albums.

  • Show tooltips will display a fullsize version (128*128 pixels) of the details of the selected album when hovering the mouse over an album. This is useful when using smaller thumbnail sizes.

  • Enable multiselects will allow you to select multiple albums in the Album Browser. When this setting is active, check boxes will be shown to the left of each entry in the album browser.

    Note:
    When using any of the     select functions in the Album Browser, this setting will automatically become activated.

  • Show contents from multiple albums will automatically show the contents from all of the selected albums in the track list.

    Note:
    This setting requires that     Enable multiselects is active. You can manually choose to display contents from multiple selected albums by selecting Browse & Search | Browse Multiple Albums from the album browser's context menu.

  • Indicate if original album picture is missing will display an icon in the lower left corner of the album picture if the original album picture is missing.

  • Use Windows XP logical sorting will use Windows XP's logical sorting which sorts like this:
    Music Album Name 1
    Music Album Name 2
    Music Album Name 3
    Music Album Name 4
    Music Album Name 5
    Music Album Name 6
    Music Album Name 7
    Music Album Name 8
    Music Album Name 9
    Music Album Name 10
    Music Album Name 20
    Music Album Name 30

    While the sorting of non-XP operating systems would look like this:
    Music Album Name 1
    Music Album Name 10
    Music Album Name 2
    Music Album Name 20
    Music Album Name 3
    Music Album Name 30
    Music Album Name 4
    Music Album Name 5
    Music Album Name 6
    Music Album Name 7
    Music Album Name 8
    Music Album Name 9

  • Thumbnail size lets you choose the size of the thumbnails in the Album Browser. Choose between the following sizes:

    • 32*32

    • 64*64

    • 96*96

    • 128*128

  • Number of album images
    This option defined how many album images Helium Music Manager should hold in memory at one time. The higher value, the smoother browsing, but a larger amount of system memory will be used.

  • Additional file types to remove when an album is removed
    This comma-separated list defines which file types that you want to have removed while removing an album from the Album Browser.

Music Library

These settings only apply to the Music Library:
 
The upper part of this page will allow you to control the order and visibility of the different items available from the Music Library. You can show/hide an item by selecting/deselecting it with the checkbox to the left of it. You can reorder an items position by selecting it and click the Up or Down buttons.

  • Show Music Library Filter will show the Music Library Filter.

  • Apply Music Library Filter to track list will make the Track List show only the tracks that are found by the currently set Music Library Filter.

  • Auto recurse nodes will automatically recurse nodes that are clicked in the Music Library (i.e. the selected node and all its sub-nodes).

My Computer

These settings only apply to the File Browser:

  • Selected file extensions
    This comma-separated list defines which file types (in addition to music files) that should be displayed while browsing the My Computer item in the Music Library.

  • Selected extra paths
    This list can be used to add pre-defined shortcuts to paths that you want quick access to. This can be anything from network drive paths or just a favorite folder that you want to add a shortcut to. The paths defined in this list will be available at the bottom of the drive list under the My Computer item in the Music Library.

  • Display files not in database in the following color [x]
    This option defines the color to display for files not currently in your database.

Artist Browser

  • Show Artist Filter will show the Album Filter while in the Album Browser.

  • Apply Artist Browser Filter to track list
    This option will apply the filter specified in the Artist Browser Filter also to the track list when browsing artists.

  • Show tooltips will display a fullsize version (128*128 pixels) of the details of the selected artist when hovering the mouse over an artist. This is useful when using smaller thumbnail sizes.

  • Enable multiselects will allow you to select multiple artists in the Artist Browser. When this setting is active, check boxes will be shown to the left of each entry in the Artist Browser.

    Note:
    When using any of the     select functions in the Artist Browser, this setting will automatically become activated.

  • Show contents from multiple artists will automatically show the contents from all of the selected artists in the track list. The default scenario is that only the currently selected artists tracks are shown.

    Note:
    This setting requires that     Enable multiselects is active. You can manually choose to display contents from multiple selected artists by selecting Browse & Search | Browse Selected Artists from the Artist Browser's context menu.

  • Thumbnail size lets you choose the size of the thumbnails in the Artist Browser. Choose between the following sizes:

    • 32*32

    • 64*64

    • 96*96

    • 128*128

  • Number of artist images
    This option defined how many artist images Helium Music Manager should hold in memory at one time. The higher value, the smoother browsing, but a larger amount of system memory will be used.

Music Information Browser

General Settings:

  • Create links for items not in my collection
    will allow you to browse items which have no matching files in your collection.

Tag Editor

These settings applies to the Tag Editor.

  • Save ID3 v1.1 tag controls if the Tag Editor should save a ID3v 1.1 tag for each file (if the file type supports ID3 tags). More information about ID3 tags can be found on the ID3.org web site.

  • Save Lyrics3 v2.0 tag controls if the Tag Editor should save a Lyrics3 v2.0 tag for each file (if the file type supports Lyrics3 v2.0 tags). More information about the Lyrics3 v2.0 tag can be found on the ID3.org web site.

  • Auto increase/decrease track number will automatically increase or decrease the current track number when navigating between the selected files in the Tag Editor.

  • Auto assign total track number will set the total tracks to the number of files selected for editing if active.

  • Show only user defined genres will only show custom entered genres in the genre combo box if selected. If this option is enabled, the default genre list will be removed.

  • Use Previously Entered Data will load previously entered data into all of the drop down lists in the Tag Editor. Note: You must restart the Tag Editor when changing this setting before it will take effect.

  • Auto assign original filename will auto assign the current filename to the original filename field if selected.

  • Auto play will automatically play the current file if selected.

  • Auto calculate BPM will automatically calculate the BPM for the current file if selected.

  • Load images and biography from database will load Artist and Album pictures as well as biography from the database for the current artist and put in the fields.

  • Save tagging time
    This option will save information about when the file was last tagged in Helium Music Manager.

  • Auto Extract multiple artists will automatically extract multiple artists entered in the Tag Editors

  • Use specified application for picture editing will allow you to control which application that should be used when you select to edit an attached picture from the Tag Editor. By default the application associated with the file extension will be used.

File Rename Wizard

These settings applies to the File Rename Wizard.

  • Automatically remove empty folders will automatically remove empty folders when renaming and moving files from the File Rename Wizard.

  • Read album artist field from database
    This option will read the Album Artist field from the database to replace the Album Artist field used in File Rename Wizard templates. This option will make sure that Various Artists albums can get a correctly named Album Artist. This option should be used when you want to create folders with the Album Artist that is shown in the Album Browser.

  • Show destination volume column
    This option will optionally display a column on the preview step of the File Rename Wizard, where the Volume that the files selected for renaming will end up in.

  • The Replacement for illegal characters list specifies which characters that illegal filename characters should be replaced with. You can define your own original characters, but you cannot remove the default characters that are not allowed within filenames on the Windows platform. These characters are: \ / : * ? < > |

    Some platforms (such as the XBOX or Linux) has other restrictions which is why it can be a good idea to define custom replacements to allow files to be transferred to these platforms.

  • Non-music files remaining after a rename operation defines an action to be taken on files remaining after a renaming operation has taken place. This can be a good feature for moving album pictures, lyrics and other notes that belongs to the files you are moving with the File Rename Wizard.

    Don't move any remaining files     is the default option and will leave remaining files where they are.

    Move all remaining files to the destination folder of the music files     will move all remaining files to the location of the music files.

    Only move remaining files of the following file types to the destination folder of the music files     specifies custom file types to be moved with the music files. This option can be used to avoid unwanted files to be moved with the music files.

    Great care should be taken when using this function since it might move files that you don't intend to move. You may want to start to define some custom file types like jpg, gif, bmp, txt to be certain that no important files are moved to a different location. Files will never be removed however, which means that the operation is always reversible.

Add Files Wizard

These settings applies to the Add Files Wizard.

  • Search for album pictures in folders will automatically try to locate album pictures in folders when adding files to the database.

  • Search for album pictures in tags will automatically try to locate album pictures in the tags of the files that are added to the database.

  • Show progress dialog when adding files
    With this option enabled a progress dialog will be shown when adding files. This dialog can be hidden by clicking the Hide button on the dialog. If this option is disabled files will be silently added in the background.

  • Chunk based mode
    When chunk based mode is used, all the music files you are adding to the database will be split into smaller chunks for adding. This allows you to browse, play and manage items as each chunk is processed and before all the files in the queue are added; but this may be a bit slower than Normal mode.

  • Normal mode
    When normal mode is used you will only be able to access the files selected for adding once all of the files have been added to the database. This mode is normally quicker then the chunk based mode.

MP3 Analyzer

These settings applies to the MP3 Analyzer.

  • You can define custom coloring for the different qualities calculated by the MP3 Analyzer. Change the color for the desired quality by clicking on the arrow next to the color, or by typing a HTML coded HEX value in the input box on the right side of the color.

  • Create backup files before applying changes to files will create backup files when performing changes to files, such as removing bad leading bytes or fixing VBR headers. On rare occasions Helium Music Manager can calculate the quality of MP3 files wrongly, and if a file is not playable after a change in the MP3 Analyzer has been made you should replace the edited file with the original file.

Synchronize Folders

These settings applies to the Synchronize Folders function.

  • Remove unavailable items will remove tracks from the database that have been moved or removed.

    Use this option with extreme care, since it can accidentally remove tracks that are currently unavailable (on CD/DVDs etc).

  • Force synchronization of all files
    This option will force all files in the selected folders to be synchronized, disregarding of file stamps. When this setting is turned off only files that have been changed from outside of Helium Music Manager will be synchronized.

  • Show progress dialog when synchronizing files
    With this option enabled a progress dialog will be shown when synchronizing folders. This dialog can be hidden by clicking the Hide button on the dialog. If this option is disabled folders will be silently synchronized in the background.

  • Select the Search for album pictures in folders option to search for newly added album pictures in the albums folders during the synchronization process. Located album pictures will only be added for albums that does not already contain a picture.

  • Select the Search for album pictures in tags option to search for newly added album pictures from the files during the synchronization process. Located album pictures will only be added for albums that does not already contain a picture.

  • Use automatic synchronization
    Turn this option on to make Helium Music Manager automatically synchronize the database with your computer after the computer has been idle for a while.

    Set the idle timer in the drop down list.

    Click the Change button to bring up a dialog where you can select which folders you want to automatically monitor.

Plug-ins

This page lists all installed plug-ins. You can view the properties of a plug-in by selecting it. The properties shows which information the plug-in is able to retrieve in black color. Some plug-ins can be configured by selecting them and clicking the Configure button.

Click the Refresh button to reload the list of available plug-ins. This is useful and required if you install a new plug-in whilst Helium Music Manager is running.

Database

  • Compress database on exit will compress the database by removing unused space when exiting the application. (NOTE: This applies only to Access Databases)

  • Housekeep database on startup will clean redundant information from the Helium Music Manager database on startup. This setting can slow down the startup process a little bit when there is information to clean but this option is recommended to enable.

  • Browse in online mode (Checking for existing files) will check if every file exist when the tracklists are read. If a file is not available it will be marked as "offline".

  • Browse in online mode (Without checking for existing files) may be used as a hybrid mode between online browsing (Checking for existing files) and Offline mode. This mode will treat all files as online, but will not check if they exist or not when tracklists are read. This mode is faster than Browse in online mode (Checking for existing files).

  • Browse in offline mode may be used for faster database browsing. Helium Music Manager will not look for files when browsing so all tracks will become "offline" and shown in italic style.

  • Use the Tables drop down list to be able to edit the lists in the field boxes in the Tag Editor.

Pictures

  • Thumbnail quality controls the quality of the thumbnails in the Album Browser. A higher value means higher quality but a larger amount of space will be used in your database.

  • The Album Picture Exclude List contains strings that are used by the Add Files Wizard (when the Search for album pictures in folders setting is used) and from the Album Cover Manager when searching for album pictures.

    If an album picture's filename contains any of the texts in this list, the album picture will be excluded. This feature is useful if you have both back covers, CD covers and inlays of CD's. Use the     Album Picture Exclude List to speed up the process and improve the accuracy of finding and attaching album pictures to your albums.

Album Pictures

  • Download pictures to album folder will save album pictures downloaded by plugins to the folder where the album tracks are.

  • Download to specific folder will download album pictures to the destination folder selected.

  • Auto copy album pictures
    If this option is enabled album pictures found during running the Synchronize Folders, Album Cover Manager or when drag'n'dropping album pictures into the Album Browser will be copied to the location specified on the option above. This will make all your Album Pictures end up in the location that you want them to be.

    Album pictures copied using this setting will be named in the format:     Album Artist - Album.

Artist Pictures

  • Folder for artist pictures
    The folder specified will be used to store your downloaded/drag'n'dropped artist pictures.

  • Auto Copy artist pictures
     

 
 
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